Other specialists from the hospital’s plastic surgery and liver transplant departments were also brought in to help.

X-ray: The image of the man's face before the surgery (Image: CEN)

The Vall d’Hebron hospital, in Barcelona, Spain, said it was the most complicated surgery so far since they carried out the world’s first successful face transplant in 2010.

The hospital said: "This is the first time that a transplant of this complexity has been performed in the world.

"The patient evolution after the surgery was successful, similar to any transplant patient at the hospital.

"Now he is already at home and only comes to the hospital to do routine check-ups."

The patient, a 45-year-old man who has not been identified, had the operation in February.

Proud: The medical staff who carried out the surgery (Image: CEN)

Unlike similar operations where a patient has had features of their face replaced, or rebuilt, the latest procedure was much more invasive.

Two-thirds of the man's lower face has been reconstructed, including his neck, mouth, tongue and the back of his throat.

He had suffered from a condition called arteriovenous malformation for the past 20 years, causing a massive deformation of his facial tissues.

The hospital said: "The patient, due to the evolution of his illness, had important functional alterations, such a vision and speech problems, and the risk of severe bleeding that put his life in danger."

The man had been examined in several other hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School in the United States, which had considered him to be inoperable.

But the Barcelona hospital ruled surgery was his only treatment option and the man now lives a normal life.

The first face partial transplant was one doctors carried out in France in 2005 on a woman who had been mauled by her dog.